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Architecture, Australia

Friendly Friday Challenge – Surprise

Forestwood

I am not that fond of social media, but I do use it. Sounds a bit hypocritical, doesn’t it? I rather like the Facebook ‘Memories’ feature. It reminds me of what I was doing on that same date, in previous years. They are always happy memories. (I generally don’t post sad ones).

Last year at this time, for instance, I took a road trip with an old friend. We stayed overnight at an Eco-resort, a first for me. It was sublime. In the morning we took a walk through the forest and there was a surprise waiting for us, one that I wasn’t so fond of:

He didn’t bite but I was oh so close to standing on him

Instead of taking the highway home, we opted to follow some back roads. An unscheduled stop in a rural area, to check on a noise in the rear boot, (read: trunk if you are from the USA), led me to discover a surprising panorama. One that only the farmer and the cows might have shared:

However, a bigger surprise was to come a few miles north.

Can you guess what it is?

A Wheelchair Accessible Basket Case!

In Aussie lingo, it is known as the Kenilworth ‘Dunny.’

In a park prone to flooding (?!), a kilometre outside of the small country town of Kenilworth, Australia, a town known more for its prize-winning cheese, is a prize-winning Dunny, or public toilet facility.

180 people submitted their designs in a competition, run by the Town’s Council, for the creation of a new public – ah – monument. It was a local architectural illustrator, Michael Lennie, whose design titled Canistrum, Latin for a basket, that was selected.

At a cost of $600,000, the ‘Dunny’ was supposed to represent a basket – the basket being the history of the town and the unfinished basket supports the future history of the town, yet to be written.

But why yellow?

On pondering the glorious throne, of which I did not deem necessary to try out first hand, I pondered whether the artist was having a go at us, or maybe he was a ‘basket case?’ Lol.

The folks up that way do seem to have a wry sense of humour as the next surprise seemed to indicate.

This was spotted on the back road across the mountain.

Jurassic Park anyone?

If you haven’t already guessed, the theme this week for Friendly Friday is:

Surprise

Show us a Surprise photo or two, or three in a Friendly Friday Post?

Because everyone likes Surprises, don’t they?

Even if they are a prize winning public toilet facility.

Surprise Us!

How to Join the Friendly Friday Challenge

To participate in the Challenge this week, you need to:

  • Create a Friendly Friday Post titled: ‘Friendly Friday – Surprise’
  • Link back your post to this blog, forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com and Sandy’s blog. The Sandy Chronicles
  • Tag your post, ‘Friendly Friday and ‘Surprise’
  • Leave a comment below, so that the hosts and others can find your post (pingbacks don’t always work)
  • Let the hosts know via the contact page if you would like to be featured as a guest blogger in future weeks. We publish a guest post once a month.
Friendly Friday

See you over at Sandy’s blog next week for the next Friendly Friday theme.

Published by Forestwood

A philosophic Australian writes here, one who admits to loving Scandinavia. I'm interested in global politics, but scratch the surface and you'll find I am a practical Environmentalist with an Egalitarian bent trying to unleash a little creativity. Scandinavian culture, literature and traditions are close to my heart, even though I am Australian. Travel broadens the mind, so I travel whenever I can. I am an avid reader, I enjoy photography, writing and a variety of crafts, particularly traditional art forms. You are always welcome to stop by at S.t.P.A.

105 thoughts on “Friendly Friday Challenge – Surprise”

  1. Oddly, not a single one of your photos displays.???? I left Facebook some months ago – just before the pandemic, as it turned out. I was sick of the Echo Chamber, and decided that I kept in touch with friends anyway, so none of the rest mattered. Slightly to my surprise, I don’t miss it at all, and even feel a sense of release. It’s annoying when organisations don’t have a website, but only a FB presence, but I survive!

    Liked by 1 person

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        1. It is an enlargement of the previous. I will delete it. I started using google photos as a way to save space. Not only has it saved space, it hasn’t added the photo at all! Lol! How are things with you, Margaret?

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. Fine thanks, as you seem to be. All good!. I use Google photos as my storage too, but download any images I want to use on my blog. It uses less blog space that way, I find. Actually, I didn’t know you could do it any other way, so that’s interesting.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. If your photos are set to public, you should be able to copy image link location, just like any other public photo on the web, I think. On the image block, you enter the url. Now that I think about it, Sandy has told me the problem with google photos not showing before. I didn’t want to have to download them, but it is great that they won’t use up so much space. I think I will just use imgur or buy so more storage?

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          4. It is just another site like Flikr where you can upload photos and then embed them to a post, via a url instead of loading the image to your wordpress media library.

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    4. I’m the same. I had Facebook but over time I really couldn’t stand it anymore and deleted my account. There are far more interesting things to do with your time than looking at Facebook. It was handy to stay in touch with some people but real friends don’t need it and who really needs to know the minutiae of our daily lives.

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      1. So well said, S J Shaw. Why do we need to know the minutiae of other’s daily lives? Curiositiy? Voyeurism? To reinforce that we are all pretty much normal? (Whatever that means)? Because facebook certainly doesn’t really contribute to our knowledge base as there is a lot of output that is well frankly, garbage!

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        1. I suppose they have tried to set something up quickly and facebook can target specific audiences very quickly and successfully. A well made website might be harder to find and has to await Google spiders to find it before it ranks high in any search. Facebook gives them bang for buck, but like the marketing we were discussing recently, is just so annoying for the reader. TV advertising isn’t much better although seems to be diminishing with the advent of streaming services. Remember those ads that repeat at the beginning and end of an ad break, and then every ad break during a program broadcast? Like brainwashing torture!

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    1. Try again now, Drake. I think it was because I used a url from Google photos and my privacy won’t allow the photos to show. No one mentioned this before so I didn’t realise until now. So many photos have not been visible…. eek! How are you going, anyways?

      Liked by 1 person

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  3. Pingback: Surprise me. – pictures imperfect blog

  4. At least the basket looks interesting, contrary to other toilet architecture I’ve seen. I happen to know a guy who designs, well not the restrooms themselves, but the lay-bies (lay-bys?) for the restrooms on German autobahns, you know: how many lanes, how long, how curved, where to put the parking bays, where the actual toilet and so on. Very organised, very efficient, very cliché German. The guy is a total nutter, you might call him a basket case, I guess 😀
    My photo is not me being surprised but me surprising somebody else. I hope it was a good surprise in the end: https://picturesimperfectblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/22/surprise-me/

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  5. I like the view you saw when you had car trouble. Surprises like that are good. I’m intrigued by the basket building, unfinished. The symbolism is interesting. Somewhere in Ohio there is a factory that is [was?] built to look like a huge basket. I’ve seen photos of it but have never seen it in person. Maybe basket buildings are a thing?

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  7. Pingback: Surprised in the Garden — Friendly Friday May 22 – Photos by Jez
  9. Pingback: Friendly Friday Challenge – Surprise – Brashley Photography

  10. Beautiful images… love the raptor. I would’ve died of fright if I had seen that snake. It is when you go off the beaten track that you find some beautiful landscapes.

    I don’t know about you but here in England the country roads are so narrow you can’t stop and by the time you find somewhere to park you are miles away from what you wanted to photograph.

    That is why I love Scotland… they have great pull-in places everywhere so you can just park up and photograph the beautiful landscape, especially in the Highlands. Here is my contribution for the challenge http://brashley.photography/2020/05/22/friendly-friday-challenge-surprise/

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  13. Pingback: Friendly Friday: Surprises of Whimsy & Magic – The Sandy Chronicles
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    1. I have aleady had a look at your post with the forest. Different and interesting highlights of the forest. Actually, if it a photo of a Northern forest, I love it! Yours was an extra treat! Thanks, Sandy!

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  16. Pingback: A Post About Nothing At All | The Snow Melts Somewhere

  18. Only in Australian bushland would you find a random dino, a stunning dunny & a snake. I have a photo somewhere of 2 knights made from garden pots & tools holding solar garden lights guarding either side of someone’s driveway out bush. Hilarious.

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  19. Pingback: Friendly Friday surprises – Manja Mexi Mexcessive
  22. Pingback: Friendly Friday – Surprise – photographias

  23. omg, you got me with that dinosaur lol 😀 how cool is that 🙂 It looked so real for a moment, I thought, they must have real dinosaurs in Australia too lol 😀 just kidding 😀 thank you for the surprise and the smile that goes with it 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Haha. We do have dinosaurs here but only the fake kind! One tryhard politician was going to build a dinosaur theme park but it didn’t get off the ground. I am glad you got a surprise and a smile. It made my day to read your comment, Alexandra. ❤

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  24. Pingback: Not all erased by time | Le Drake Noir

  26. Like you, I’m not a fan of social media but use it. I don’t post on my Facebook anymore (except for my blog’s page) and maybe have a quick browse through my feed once or twice a day. Same goes for my Twitter – posting content that is blog-related.

    That is a creative dunny designed through a competition. The idea behind it might be taking the piss out of us, who knows. But I reckon its thoughtful, and ambiguous so each of us can interpret it our own way.

    That Jurassic Park-like dinosaur looks almost too real lol.

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  27. Pingback: Friendly Friday Surprise – Philosophy Through Photography

    1. Thanks ever so much for joining in on Friendly Friday. The dinosaur surprised me. In the middle of nowhere, there it was. A quirky country artist who enjoyed the movies, perhaps?

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  32. Pingback: Friendly Friday: Surprise – David M's photoblog
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  36. I’m also not a big social media user, but I do appreciate Facebook Memories. I love the reminder of where I was on a certain day (like you I typically only post positive memories). It’s also a great lesson in how quickly time flies and we shouldn’t waste (or wish away) a single minute/

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Absolutely agree. Seeing how much time has passed can remind us to live in the moment and appreciate the moment.
      For me, that is taking a moment to stand back, observe and take a snapshot of sights and sounds of a particular moment, with your mind. It seems to cement it in my consciousness and my mind.

      Liked by 1 person

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  37. Apologies I seem to have also inadvertently created a pingback to another post for this weeks challenge as well as my original one – ‘Enveloping’ – please feel free to remove this link and this comment!

    Liked by 1 person

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  42. Hi Amanda, Oh, an Australian surprise. I don’t think we have them get as big around here. The first time I am hearing about a “Dunny.” A monument. Hilarious. Funny description “glorious throne.” Your entire post made me smile. Thank you.🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. If I was able to make you chuckle, Eric/ka, my work was done! It makes my day when I have been able to bring a laugh/funny moment to another. Laughing is so therapeutic. The word Dunny is so iconically Australian. I don’t like the word and don’t use it generally speaking, but the term does have its uses when referring to colloquial Australian. Out of curiosity, I just looked up the origins of the word.
      “The word comes from British dialect dunnekin meaning an ‘earth closet, (outside) privy’ from dung + ken ‘house’. First recorded in the 1930s but dunnekin is attested in Australian sources from the 1840s.”
      That is a surprise! British in origin!

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      Reply
  43. Pingback: I can see a rainbow! – Heart to Heart

  45. thanks forestwood, you kept the audience enthralled till the end with the surprise element. i’m trying to figure out how to be part of your challenge and would certainly love to participate. if you have any suggestions that would make it easy for me to get started, please share them. Meanwhile all the best in all things life and happiness.

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